KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii — Tires from a large airplane that’s been stuck in a Hawaii bay for more than a week are resting on parts of a reef, according to video the U.S. Navy released Wednesday as it figures out a plan to remove the aircraft.

There were no injuries to the nine people who were on board when the plane landed Nov. 20 in shallow water just offshore of Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. The base is about 10 miles from Honolulu. The Navy is investigating what caused the plane to overshoot a runway.

The underwater footage shows the “two points of contact the aircraft has with the coral and the remainder of the aircraft floating above,” the Navy said. The video shows tires on the coral as tiny fish swim through rock crevices.

A Navy team removed nearly all of the estimated 2,000 gallons of fuel on the plane, Rear Adm. Kevin Lenox said Monday.

Cmdr. Mark Anderson, who is leading the Navy’s mobile diving and salvage unit working at the site, said the plane was sitting on a mixture of coral and sand. The left engine is resting on coral. The plane rises a little with the tide, so the full weight of the plane is not on the coral, he said Monday.

Kaneohe Bay is home to coral reefs, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond and a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks.

Image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy,
Tires on the coral. U.S. Navy via AP
image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy
The plane was sitting on a mixture of coral and sand.U.S. Navy via AP

Sierra Club of Hawaii Executive Director Wayne Tanaka said the latest underwater footage underscores the concerns about potential damage to the reefs that residents previously expressed.

“It confirms what we’ve known: We have a jet plane sitting on coral reef,” he said. “We don’t know how much it moved, how much it could move.”

State environmental officials expect to conduct a damage assessment once the plane is removed.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Scarlett Johansson sues Disney, claims ‘Black Widow’ streaming cut into box office profits

Scarlett Johansson filed suit against Walt Disney Co. on Thursday, claiming the…

Israelis wrestle with whether to punish or rally behind Netanyahu government

TEL AVIV — Bracing for a major war, Israelis furious over their…

Why Trump’s ambitious new social media site may already be doomed

Any minute now, a test version of Donald Trump’s new social media…

Mississippi slaughterhouse is directly responsible for death of migrant teen who was sucked into machinery, OSHA says

A Mississippi slaughterhouse that supplies chicken to Chick-fil-A is directly to blame…